Ninth Circuit Upholds Motorized Big Game Retrieval for Elk and Bison.

March 14, 2019

Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the limited use of motor vehicles to retrieve lawfully taken elk and bison on the Kaibab National Forest. In January 2016, several environmental litigants sued the U.S. Forest Service over its decision to allow hunters to drive cross-country up to one mile off of designated roads to retrieve elk and bison lawfully taken on the Kaibab. The State argued the loss of motorized big game retrieval for elk and bison would frustrate the ability of the Department to conserve forest resources-by limiting hunters’ ability to retrieve and ethically harvest the game meat of elk and bison lawfully taken on the Kaibab National Forest. Lawful hunting is the primary tool Game and Fish uses to properly manage elk and bison populations in the state.